Roger Federer kept his bid for an 8th Basel title having to come from a set down to beat Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

“Today was a battle. I had to somehow dig and fight and sometimes these wins are more rewarding than just leading from the get-go and dominating throughout and bringing it home,” said Federer. “These are better matches to win sometimes, actually. I just had a tough time really getting into it and he was rock solid, so he deserved that first set, but the reaction from me was really important.”

Next for Federer in the semifinals is David Goffin. The Belgian who is making a push for London beat Jack Sock 7-6(6), 6-3. Federer leads Goffin 5-0.

The second Basel semifinal pits former US Open champions Juan Martin del Potro against Marin Cilic.

“It was a really hard match, Bautista played some unbelievable shots the whole match,” said del Potro. “We played at a great level and I survived and I’m still alive to qualify for London. I know I am getting closer and closer to qualifying, but I need to keep winning here and in Paris. We’ll then see if I qualify or not.”

Cilic also went three sets over Hungarian qualifier Martin Fucsovics 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-6(4).

Del Potro, who has twice won the Basel title, leads Cilic 9-2.

In Vienna, Jo-Wilfried continued to strengthen his London bid toppling top seed Alexander Zverev 7-6(6), 6-2. Tsonga has won his last seven matches after taking the Antwerp title on Sunday. He now meets Philipp Kohlschreiber.

M!….Crashquet wants to honour your given name by crashed out last nite…Thank u so much ma’am for give that name to him…I mean,u could have given him a much better name like Croquet or Cricket but no!…u called him CRASHQUET!…Btw…Ooppss!….i see your darling Sascha CRASHED OUT too!!Ohohohohohoho!!…let’s give a donkey laugh to ourselves!!..Hehawhehawhehawhehaw!!

Btw…let’s renew our rivalries in paris!!Wooohoooo!!….See yer 2 days from now Witch From Welsh!!..Yeeehaaaa!!

@ gnzalowski
Watching Garcia and Williams but saw last JMDP match and, although he won, he got very grumpy in that too. Glaring at the ref or his box or the crowd. Dunno. Used to massive support from the crowd, perhaps that’s it.

Not many people knows Delpo is having back pain now. Hence, he’s not serving many firsts.

Summary vs Cilic: Marin was the more aggressive throughout. He was also an UFE machine. Delpo could have won 6-4 6-2 if not for his poor serving and loads of BPs squandered. Marin served even worse. Delpo owns Marin since little kids (memo to Tennis Magic!). That’s it.

Delpo won’t have enough in the tank against Federer tomorrow (do you really think Goffin will upset him?)

The point is: I don’t care if Roger wins the title. I do care Jo Willie winning Vienna (very possible) and usurping Delpo in the race to London (very possible).

The negative thing is that Delpo is feeling fatigue towards Paris. well, with all due respect to Carreño Busta, if Delpo isn’t getting to London, Tsonga would be the worthier addition (if he wins Vienna, he would get to 5 titles this year!).
We see how Goffin is almost there and he can’t make a match against Roger being fresh as a lettuce.

This FED is just breathtaking to watch.
Hyper aggressive, taking everything early.
If he could maintain his health and play only major events like masters and GS then he could maintain this form for atleast 1.5 years more. He even signed a contract to play Basel for atleast 3 years more ( we could see more of Fed for 2-3 years atleast :) )

Go Fed. Ice your back and come back and give your best against delpo tomorrow .

JK, when is it otherwise? All draws are custom designed to be cupcake for Fed. skeezer himself has confirmed it is not luck. But everytime a draw is out, the Fedfans will cry and say oh my our man has a tough draw. They will dutifully worry about his “tough” meeting with “x” say Dolgopolov in Wimbledon or Goffin at Basel even though these tough opponents have 0-5 or 0-6 vs Fed! ha ha ha! Hilarious!!!

Most players have a losing record against Fed, what else is new? You think Rafa gets tougher draws? He creates his one tough draws, like consistently losing to WC”s and 100 + ranked players in early rounds.

skeezer, losing record is something, 0-6, 0-5 is something else. Delpotro has a losing record against Fed but if you said he is a tough opponent, I would agree. He is not in the class of Goffins and Dolgos who have never beat Fed and can hope to do so only if Fed is not fit or wants to tank a match! Wringing your hands and claiming a draw littered with 0-6, 0-5 guys is tough, ha ha, that is hilarious.

Swiss Fraud says he can’t breathe, like he did in 2008, to excuse his forgettable, weak matches vs. non-legends (that suffered with numerous injuries, predictable games & mostly bad matches). Obviously, his worst fanboys changed their minds again, and think this is the strongest draw he ever had…

chofer. If draws are not random, the competition is not fair. Same goes for favoritism in scheduling and court allocation. You cannot say you get what you get in tennis and dismiss it in a casual manner. Something blatantly unfair needs to be talked about.
You can follow Jane on twitter. I don’t know her but one of her tweets reproduced on tennis-x by Giles was hilarious!

Fed has drawn Tiafoe in the 1st round who has given him all sorts of troubles previously, in what way it sound like a rigged draw to you ?
And apart from Delpo who else could give THIS Fed trouble in Basel anyway ?

Can’t we just discuss Tennis here, all of these conspiracy theories just spoil the mood of the forum.

ok, Jatin, prove the draws are NOT rigged before accusing me of lying.
Draws are part of tennis. So when we discuss draws, it is tennis. If you prefer to be an ostrich with head in the sand, that’s your choice.

You can watch all the Grand Slam draws live. It would be pretty hard to “rig” it. There is usually a different player that is actually physically pulling out numbers to dictate where each ranked player goes into their corresponding quarter. Jealousy, that is all it is.

kjb, have you ever been to a magic show? You pull some numbers out of a hat and the magician tells you exactly what they are? Do you know how it is done?
Besides only 32 numbers are physically pulled out. The rest of the draw of 96 people is done behind closed doors. Plenty of opportunity to rig the whole thing.
I am not jealous. I am just pointing out the obvious, the speeding up of AO surface, the outrageous court and schedule allocations overlooking higher ranking of Nadal and Djokovic at various Wimbledons and USOs and the inexplicable patterns which have emerged in draws which definitely do not seem random.
And then there is the performance of a 36 year old this year which is suspicious to say the least.

No ATP player is demanding that the draw is crookedy wrong and shows favoritism. You just don’t know how seeds work in a draw that may setup a players draw. Read up on how a draw works. and come back educated.
There are surfaces taylor made for Rafa & Djokovic’s game too, All this continual talk is rubbish and YOU provide no proof, just jealous rants that somehow someway according to your own mind must be true.
Fed has 19 Slams, none of the players past and present are complaining about that number, how he got it, cause they all know HE earned it fair and square.